Rating: 
Summary: Full of beautiful imagery and interesting characters
Review: I was required to read this book for an American lit course but was pleasantly surprised with how short and sweet it is. Jewett definitely has a way with words and makes you wish you could be in Maine, witnessing the events of the novel. Charming!
Rating:
Summary: Balm for the soul
Review: I'd have to disagree that this title is for older readers. But I can see how, in general, a more sedate pace is required to truly enjoy the read.I'm 27 and currently undergoing chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. I'm an avid reader, but since treatment began I haven't been able to focus so well. I happened to pick up this book on a whim, and I do no regret it. While there is no plot, and the chapters are really just a series of character sketches, this book is pure magic. You have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it though. I've been sick a lot through treatment and when I've tried to read "lighter" books, they've barely aroused my interest for long. This book is in no way light. It is quiet and subtle and still and profoundly deep. It is exactly what I needed, a literary balm for the soul--taking me to a place and allowing me to meet people long lost to time, immersing me in a beautiful world I don't really wish to leave. It draws you in, as if it's winter and you are welcomed into a warm room with a cozy fire--and it wraps around you with all the comfort of heaven. I'll be disappointed when I reach the last page and thus the end of this particular journey.
Rating:
Summary: Graveyard literature
Review: I've read many wonderful novels but I could count on the fingers of one hand those that seemed to transcend literature and, in Kenneth Rexroth's phrase, bring me face-to-face with the meaning of existence. Of that glorious few, "The Country of the Pointed Firs" is by far the shortest and yet, mysteriously and inexplicably, the deepest. It's a still and quiet book; it will not show its face it to you if you read it while riding the subway to work. It's the sort of book to read on sitting alone in a graveyard while a cool breeze blows the last autumn leaves from the branches. That's the best description I can give you; it's too subtle and beautiful for summaries. Just read it, please.
Rating: 
Summary: Short, dull but very readable
Review: In Sarah Orne Jewwtt's The Country of the Pointed Furs we find ourselves sucked in to a dull town of the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and as the narrator recounts her visits with the towns people we sit and wait for something to happen but it never does. Her rhetoric and grammer I find both beautiful and very appropiate for the novel because it draws you towards a town that is surrounded by simple people and wonderful scenery. Even though the narrator's desriptive language draws you closer to the town, you still wish that something somewhat interesting will occur. To me Chapter Six gives the only spark in the novel because of Littlepage's tale of the seas."They could see the place when they were approaching it by sea preatty near like any town, and thick with habitations; but all at once they lost sight of it altogether,...they could see the shapes of folks, but they never could get near them..." This is why I proceded to read the novel, because it showed great potential and you wanted to read the crazy adventures of someone else in the town. Of course no one had anything important to say and in my opiniont this book falls short of its potential, but then again I am just an ignorant reader who does not really enjoy a novel that does not have an adventure.
Rating: 
Summary: Did I Miss the Secret Chapter?
Review: In the novel "The Country of the Pointed Firs", Sarah Orne Jewett invites her readers to journey with her through rural Maine with its green landscapes, hushed scenery, and quaint townspeople. A place where nothing noteworthy or earth-shattering seems to happen. The author and her companions seem to drift through their days carefree, as they relish the simplicity of existing peacefully. The narrator spends her summer in a seaside New England village and develops friendships with her hostess and her family. As with most novels, I read page after page anticipating the "big moment", the "turning point", a "climax", anything to cite as the work's purpose or point. I never did quite accomplish that.I found myself reading and rereading looking for the part that I must have skipped over accidentally. I have yet to find the secret chapter. But what I accomplished wasn't known to me at the time but became clear after reflecting. The goal of the book is to help its readers acquire an inner peace within themselves; one that I found to be best appreciated in one's older years. I dont think that I was ready to read the book presently, but can see myself one day rocking in a glider totally enjoying and appreciating Jewett's novel.
Rating:
Summary: Did I Miss the Secret Chapter?
Review: In the novel "The Country of the Pointed Firs", Sarah Orne Jewett invites her readers to journey with her through rural Maine with its green landscapes, hushed scenery, and quaint townspeople. A place where nothing noteworthy or earth-shattering seems to happen. The author and her companions seem to drift through their days carefree, as they relish the simplicity of existing peacefully. The narrator spends her summer in a seaside New England village and develops friendships with her hostess and her family. As with most novels, I read page after page anticipating the "big moment", the "turning point", a "climax", anything to cite as the work's purpose or point. I never did quite accomplish that.I found myself reading and rereading looking for the part that I must have skipped over accidentally. I have yet to find the secret chapter. But what I accomplished wasn't known to me at the time but became clear after reflecting. The goal of the book is to help its readers acquire an inner peace within themselves; one that I found to be best appreciated in one's older years. I dont think that I was ready to read the book presently, but can see myself one day rocking in a glider totally enjoying and appreciating Jewett's novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Younger readers like this book too!
Review: Many have said you need to be older (at least 40) to appreciate this book, but I loved it and I'm only 26. Jewett made me feel like I was really there in Dunnet Landing, and since the narrator is never named, I felt like I was the narrator, living her experiences (it helps that the narrator in this story is a writer and so am I). I loved Jewett's descriptive language and rich characterization. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates beautiful imagery and unforgetful characters. My favorite character in the novel is Mrs. Todd's mother, Mrs. Blackett -- I wish I was as loving and giving and self-forgetful as she is! My husband and I are planning a trip to coastal Maine this summer, and I will be thinking about this novel while I'm there.
Rating:
Summary: Younger readers like this book too!
Review: Many have said you need to be older (at least 40) to appreciate this book, but I loved it and I'm only 26. Jewett made me feel like I was really there in Dunnet Landing, and since the narrator is never named, I felt like I was the narrator, living her experiences (it helps that the narrator in this story is a writer and so am I). I loved Jewett's descriptive language and rich characterization. I would recommend this book to anyone who appreciates beautiful imagery and unforgetful characters. My favorite character in the novel is Mrs. Todd's mother, Mrs. Blackett -- I wish I was as loving and giving and self-forgetful as she is! My husband and I are planning a trip to coastal Maine this summer, and I will be thinking about this novel while I'm there.
Rating:
Summary: a lovely book I'd been avoiding
Review: My book club read Country of the Pointed Firs one month when I didn't participate and I really didn't think I'd go back and read it. Last summer when my daughter and I visited Victoria, British Columbia I found the book in a bookstore for one dollar and bought it. I read it on the ferry traveling home and it was wonderful to read of the Maine woods and look and see the woods of the San Juans. A lovely set of stories, with lovely people. I'm so glad I got the book.
Rating:
Summary: No plot and no action, but plenty of relaxing local color
Review: Perhaps the finest example of the type known as a "local colorist", this quiet book radiates peace, tranquility, warmth, and, at least implicitly, small town values. While the stories are sequential (at least in the work proper - this edition also includes some first-person narratives that fit contextually, but are actually outside the body of the original work) - and unified (all take place in a small portion of Maine, and takes place over the course of one summer), there's no real overlying plot or climax to the book, and blessed little action. Instead, the reader is treated to a few relaxing months in the country, with nothing to do but listen to the crash of the surf, breathe in the pungent smell of the herb garden, and enjoy the nodding conversations of the sparsely-drawn and just-sufficiently-colorful locals. Beloved and respected relatives abound, and one of the add-on stories even compasses a wedding. No stress, no worries, and no problems to solve - this is a book that could help one get to sleep on some too-tense evening. Of course if you're hoping for something a little more from a book, best look elsewhere. There's really nothing more than light, quiet entertainment here, but it's of such a refined and delightful quality as one rarely finds in the literary canon. As such, women will probably enjoy this book more than men, and mature readers will probably appreciate it more than young people. But when you've had enough excitement, and the toils of your savage work day are weighing heavily on you, don't forget that Mrs. Todd will still have a spare room waiting for you in her quiet New England home.
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